[Interview with Lalo Schifrin]
With Peter Anthony Holder
Broadcast 1996.06.13 21:30
Excerpt of transcript from CJAD 800 AM, Montreal, United States
Open-line talk show
Source: http://www.peteranthonyholder.com/cjad23.htm
(this page includes complete interview)
LALO: Yes....not only that, but the whole main title....the company
wasn't ready and he told me, even by the time you score the movie [which kicked
off the series]...because besides that theme, I had to write a whole background
music....and I had only one week to do it. So he says, "by the time you
score the movie, you'll have the visuals of all the movie, except the main title."
It was in the main title that I used that famous theme that everybody knows,
but during the movie I had another theme which was the suspense theme, which
Danny Elfman has used with variations and he was gracious enough to give me
credit for that which was.....(Lalo plays some of the theme on piano)...It has
more mystery, more tension. It has a little bit of drama. It's almost like a
paramilitary operation, because that's what the MISSION:IMPOSSIBLE force was
doing. They were a paramilitary operation. If you pay attention in the movie,
you're going to recognize echoes of that secondary theme, which actually was
used through the body of the television show. The main theme, which is most
known was too happy and the producers said to me, "you're not going to
have anything on the screen. The only thing I know is that I would like to start
with a fuse that is going to be maybe one second and a half," I think he
told me. "Then after that, it should explode, the music to give me a very
strong rhythm, and give me very dynamic music that promised adventure, action
and a lot of danger. So I did it and it was very strange to record without anything
on the screen. Maybe that's one of the reasons why because I didn't have the
straightjacket of any visuals....maybe that would be an explanation why the
music is so free and it works so well, not only for the movie but outside, in
terms of popularity.